The opening day of the 2017 World Junior Championships is set to get underway from Indianapolis, with a whopping eight events on the schedule for day 1.

The men will swim the 400 free, 100 back, 100 breast and 4×100 free relay, and the women will contest the 50 breast, 400 IM, 100 back and 4×200 free relay. All 50 or 100m races will have semi-finals, while any race 200m and up will advance the top-8 from prelims directly to the final.

Americans Andrew Abruzzo and Trey Freeman both swam smart races to pace their respective preliminary heats in times of 3:52.20 and 3:51.32 respectively.

Swimming in the 6th of 7 heats, Abruzzo sat in the pack before accelerating home in 27.85 to win the heat in a close sprint finish. Hungary’s Balasz Hollo (3:52.41), Poland’s Antoni Kaluzynski (3:52.45) and Australia’s Nathan Robinson (3:52.87) were all right behind Abruzzo and end up qualifying for the final 4th through 6th overall.

The last heat was a similar story, as Freeman broke a tightly bunched field late to pull away and take over the top time of the morning with his 3:51.32. Spain’s Francisco Arevalo Rubio came in behind him at 3:52.11 to pass Abruzzo for 2nd overall. South African Jarryd Baxter and Australian Jacob Vincent were 3rd and 4th in the heat and round out the eight finalists in times of 3:53.01 and 3:53.18 respectively.

Russians Maksim Aleksandrov (3:53.52) and Martin Malyutin (3:54.29) just missed out in 9th and 10th.

American Emily Weiss broke 31 seconds for the first time in heat 6 of the women’s 50 breast to establish the fastest time of the morning heading into the semi-finals. She lowers her previous best of 31.11, set at U.S. Trials in late June where she won the B-final.

She won the heat by a wide margin, with Slovenia’s Tara Vovk (31.76) and Australia’s Chelsea Hodges (31.78) finishing 2nd and 3rd. They finished 6th and 7th overall.

In the heat prior Canadian junior champion Faith Knelson went 31.16, a time that stands up as 2nd best. Great Britain’s Annabel Guye-Johnson (31.74) and Lithuania’s Agne Seleikaite (31.93) also broke 32 from the heat to qualify 5th and 9th overall.

Two more swimmers were sub-32 in heat 7, led by Ireland’s Mona McSharry in 31.41. She was followed by American Zoe Bartel (31.59), as they move into the semis in 3rd and 4th.

Ireland’s Conor Ferguson and Romania’s Daniel Martin were the only two to crack 55 in the men’s 100 back heats, doing so to win the final two heats in times of 54.95 and 54.96 respectively. Martin will look to give Romania a repeat gold medal in this event after Robert Glinta was victorious two years ago in Singapore.

2017 European Junior champ Kacper Stokowski of Poland came in next at 55.42, just ahead of the American duo of Nicolas Albiero (55.44) and Drew Kibler (55.51). Great Britain’s Nicholas Pyle and Brodie Williams were the other two to crack 56 seconds, putting them 8th and 9th.

Japan’s Miku Kojima established a sizeable lead over the 5th and final heat on the backstroke leg and held strong throughout the rest of the race, hitting the wall in 4:44.75 for the top time of the morning. Her teammate Anna Saski made up a bit of ground on her on free, touching 2nd in 4:46.31 for 4th overall.

Heat 4 saw Serbia’s Anja Crevar and the U.S. duo of Christin Rockway and Madison Homovichhave a close battle. Homovich led by a second after the backstroke, but Crevar pulled ahead on breaststroke to lead Rockway by two seconds heading into the freestyle with Homovich back another second. Crevar held strong to win the heat in 4:45.08, with Rockway (4:46.23) and Homovich (4:46.67) 2nd and 3rd. They qualify 2nd, 3rd and 5th overall for the final.

Spain’s Laia Marti Fernandez was the slowest of the eight finalists at the 200 mark by a wide margin (2:22.37), but had a sizzling 1:18.51 breaststroke split to move up and ultimately qualify 6th overall in 4:47.04.

Junior world record holder Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy threw down the gauntlet in the final heat of the men’s 100 breast, breaking the meet record in a time of 59.53 to qualify 1st by nearly a full second. He lowers Anton Chupkov‘s 2015 mark of 1:00.12, and will look to approach his junior record of 59.23 in the semis and final.

Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook had a strong swim behind Martinenghi in the heat to post a 1:00.75, putting him 3rd overall. American Reece Whitley had a strong second 50 to win the first circle-seeded heat in 1:00.41, putting him 2nd, and his teammate Michael Andrew won the other seeded heat in 1:00.91 to sit 4th.

Russia’s Evgenii Somov was also fast out of the last heat in 1:01.27 for 5th overall, and Italy manages to put two swimmers in the top-6 with Alessandro Pinzuti‘s strong showing of 1:01.50.

Canadian Gabe Mastromatteo notably had a big drop to qualify 10th in 1:01.76, improving his 1:03.17 best by well over a second.

American Regan Smith and Canadian Taylor Ruck set up what should be a fantastic head-to-head battle once we get to the final, as the two were within just over a tenth of each other in 59.52 and 59.64 to post the top two times in the women’s 100 back.

Smith won the penultimate heat, lowering the championship record of 59.58 set by Australian Minna Atherton in 2015 and also lowering her best time from 59.70 set at U.S. Trials in June. Ruck followed suit in the last heat, breaking a minute for the first time to qualify 2nd overall for the semi-finals.

Those swims come as no surprise as Smith is coming off an appearance in the final of the 200 back at the World Championships, while Ruck recently went a big best of 2:07.6 in that same event at the Canadian Junior Championships.

The other Canadian entrant, Jade Hannah, won the other circle-seeded heat in 1:00.21 to qualify 4th overall, with Japan’s Natsumi Sakai (1:00.11) 3rd overall after taking 2nd to Ruck in the last heat. American Grace Ariola and Brit Cassie Wild also broke 1:01, and recent European Junior champion Polina Egorova was right behind them for 7th overall in 1:01.19.

The Brazilians, Germans and Russians posted the top three times of the morning in the men’s 400 free relay from heat 2, led by Brazil in 3:18.84. Three of their four legs were sub-50, including a 49.81 lead-off from Lucas Peixoto and a 48.98 split from Breno Correia.

Germany (3:19.93) and Russia (3:20.07) both had their fastest legs come on the back half, with their top splits coming from Peter Varjasi (49.65) going 3rd and Ivan Girev (49.02) on the anchor.

The Australians won the final heat over Poland and the U.S. for the 4th best time in 3:20.19, with a quick 49.28 anchor coming from Elijah Winnington. Poland had three sub-50 swimmers to take 5th overall in 3:20.35, and the U.S. will be on the outside tonight after placing 7th in 3:20.91. Their top split came from Drew Kibler (49.94) on the lead-off.

The Hungarians, who won a surprise bronze in this event at the World Championships, advance in 6th thanks to a 49.25 lead-off from a member of that Worlds team, Nandor Nemeth.

The Italians round out the finalists, and there was a clear divide between the top-8 and the rest as the 9th place Japanese team was over five seconds back of Italy.

Women’s 4×200 Free Relay

The Canadians ease into the final of the women’s 800 free relay with the top time at 8:03.10, winning heat 2. Kayla Sanchez was one of two in the field to crack 2:00 with her 1:59.75 second leg, and 100 free Olympic gold medalist Penny Oleksiak cruised her way to a 2:00.16 split on the third leg. Given Oleksiak split 1:54.9 at the Olympics, and the team will likely add Taylor Ruck tonight, they should be very dangerous.

The Americans won heat 1 in 8:06.67 for the 2nd best time overall, led by a 2:00.73 anchor from Kelly Pash. The Russians qualify 3rd with a solid 2:00.72 lead-off from Anastasiia Kirpichnikova, and Japan sits 4th after receiving the fastest split of the field, a 1:59.18 lead-off from Rikako Ikee.

Hungary, Spain, Germany and Italy round out the eight finalists, while the Australians were disqualified after an early take-off from Jenna Forrester who swam third.

About James Sutherland

James is currently a university swimmer for the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He is studying economics. Along with swimming, he also loves hockey. He's in his 14th season as a competitive swimmer.
Best Times (SCM):
50 FR - 24.70
100 FR - 53.88
200 FR - 1:56.12
1500 FR - 16:45.97
100 BK - …